When Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.” Hebrews 10:5-6 (ESV)
In this letter to the Hebrews, it tells us that when Jesus stepped onto the scene, He lived out the words of Psalm 40. Kind of like the glass slipper fit only on Cinderella’s foot, these words fit nobody but Jesus.
God was preparing for the first Christmas throughout time and throughout the Old Testament. All the sacrifices that we read about in the Old Testament were mere shadows pointing to Jesus. Those sacrifices involved the death of animals that had to be forced to the altar. They had no choice in the matter; they were simply pressed into service. But before He even experienced humanity, Jesus knew His role! He willingly consented to his sacrifice. In the humblest of forms and in an unexpected setting, God the Son took on a body that was prepared for Him—prepared “as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). He looked at this broken world and its sinful people, and He said to His Father, ” Yes, I will go there. I will become one of them, and I will die for them. ”
Peter understood the weight of Christ’s death when he wrote, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Jesus, being fully God and fully man, entered this world to do in His body what no animal sacrifice could do: He has borne our punishment, cleansed our consciences, and held out divine mercy. He perfectly accomplished all that is necessary for all of us to enter into fellowship with God.
This is very different from the promise of religion, in which rules and work become necessary to climb the ladder into heaven. In contrast, the manger’s message is one of liberating Mercy and Grace. God has taken the initiative and come to rescue us through Jesus. We don’t need to make a long journey to find God, we don’t have to work to earn his love, because Christ, the newborn King, knew His role. Jesus freely gives the gift of grace. What we’ve done, where we’ve been does not matter to him. His Grace is for each one of us.
Lee | GG Team
